Review by
Benjamin Poole
Directed by: Liam Calvert
Starring: Alexander Lincoln, Jack Brett Anderson, David Bradley, Jimmy Ericson,
Beth Rylance, Kane Surry
On reflection, I think the film which fucked me up the most was Scorsese
neo-noir oddity After Hours. Not in terms of how, say, Watcher in the Woods messed
with my head (couldn't sleep for weeks, lifelong fear of mirrors) but with
regards to expectation versus reality. After Hours implied
that the city came alive at night, with strange and beautiful nocturnal
people abiding behind club and bars doors invisible in the daytime to get
up to glamorous and arty caprice only viable under cover of the dark: it
made the metropolis at moonlight a place of mysterious magic. As a kid I
would lie awake, fantasising about the varied panchromatic adventures
going on in the city 10 miles from my bedroom, longing for the moment I
could tread the neon lit backstreets and electric avenues of, um, Cardiff.
Similar to how I had eagerly imagined High School was going to be an all
singing, all dancing extravaganza where boys worked on cars in shop and
girls were universally fierce, ala Rydell High, I thought that the Welsh
capital at night was a vespertine Shangri-La of basement clubs, off-clock
escapade and Linda Fiorentino. Of course, the actuality, when it came,
didn't match the exalted image I had cultivated: unlike the song, most
cities do sleep, unless it involves queuing for half an hour to be
squeezed into a sweatbox cavern with sloppy drunk people. Griffin Dunne
never had to jostle for space with a stag do/hen night in Walkabout...
Director Liam Calvert and writer Diego Scerrati's
A Night Like This is a sort of genteel take on Scorsese's
1985 outlier, as acutely depressed resting actor Lukas (Jack Brett Anderson) and guitar toting gadabout Oliver (Alexander Lincoln) meet cute
in that London, for a night where, to quote imdb, they attempt to "find a
meaning to their miserable lives" (I think this is the 67th film I've
reviewed this year which focuses on winsome millennials being upset at how
hard it all is. What is going on, Gen Y?). Although the menace of
Scorsese's 1985 black comedy is absent, the lads' journey of discovery
similarly entails late night bars and subterranean clubs, along with Guy's
Hospital, in an evening which seems infinite as the two interact with a
cast of picaresque characters and discover true friendship or something:
like the tentative conclusion of the film itself, I am unsure.
Despite occasional missteps, A Night Like This has charm in
abundance. It's impossible to take against this sweet natured bromance,
even as it initially essays perhaps everyone's worst social nightmare.
Fresh from almost throwing himself off Blackfriars Bridge, Lukas seeks a
melancholic pint in a nearby boozer, where he is accosted by the braying
Oliver: he pleads poverty at the bar, stating that he should have a free
pint because "it's Christmas" (the ostensible yuletide setting is a
feature which the film doesn't quite make enough of). The barman is
unmoved, so Oliver chugs stranger Lukas's pint while working within the
logic that the barman will give the sad-sack actor a fresh one. Then, on
the night bus, Oliver spots Lukas again, and chums up next to him, because
he's been sick in the back and it smells. He then gloms onto the
beleaguered actor. Is there anything more inauspicious than a drunk
stranger latching on to you over an evening? That human churn of pity and
social obligation being taken advantage of?
Lukas doesn't really seem to mind. I suppose he was about to jump into the
Thames a minute ago and is throughout the film plagued by flashbacks of
what seems to be a hostile sex-work episode which occurred earlier in the
endless evening though, and so off he goes into the good night with
Oliver. This is despite Oliver being outed as a bullshitter when his open
wallet reveals a wodge of scores despite his apparent incapacity to get a
round in earlier (just as the film can't really reconcile Lukas' darkness
with the breezy set pieces, this is a narrative lapse, as it suggests
Oliver is a complete cad and you're left waiting for a shoe which never
drops). Nevertheless, they go on to bond in late night bars and various
musical venues (where Lincoln performs with the guitar: he's really good),
with Oliver the blokey Tyler Durden to Lukas' naïf.
Alas, A Night Like This isn't quite adventurous to share
that film's twist. It is a fairy tale, really, with the two connecting in
a heavily romanticised LDN, which they seem have all to themselves, apart
from occasional liminal characters. Despite being on the piss for hours,
neither of them ever look or behave drunk. They get mugged but end up
taking the track suited urchin assailant under their wing, and then to an
A&E wing following another botched robbery (part of the film's
escapist fantasy is that they get seen to straight away on a Christmas
period night in London...). A Night Like This ambles along,
seemingly without intention, but pleasantly enough. Uncharacteristically,
an aspect of the film which I took against was the "will-they-won't-they"
homoerotic hook up that the film teases throughout (involving a couple of
hot and hungry kisses). Look, you know me, I'm an absolute romantic and
live my life hoping every old sock meets an old shoe, and that everyone
gets to have sex all the time. But the thing is, sex is straightforward. A
hook up is lemon squeezy. Friendship, especially a platonic companionship
between blokes, is a rarer beast, and a more interesting and complex path
to explore. A Night Like This is at its most interesting
when negotiating these interpersonal parameters.
Nonetheless, A Night Like This will win you over with its
eager performances and eye for quirky, metropolitan detail. London is a
city unique in its multitudes: unlike Prague, say, which is so very
Prague-like, London has a seething polysemy. Each person's experience of
the city is bespoke, and unless you forge a decisive trail through its
winding streets, it will simply wash you away in a wave of Angus Steak
Houses and red phone-box fridge magnets. As ever, it helps if you know
someone, and, via well-meaning gobshite Oliver's point man, with
A Night Like This guides Calvert and Scerrati lead us
through an enjoyable flâner.
A Night Like This is on UK/ROI VOD
now.
